The present invention relates to the art of providing sweeteners for use in confections and, in particular, to providing controlled release of sweeteners in confections.
It has been a goal in the art of confections to provide confectionary units with sustained sweetness for the full measure of time such confection is in the oral cavity. For those confections consumed or dissipated during the oral residence time, the sustained sweetness is relatively easily achieved by simply providing a uniformly-sweetened confection composition. In the case of chewing gum, however, supplying sustained sweetness throughout the period of chewing is quite difficult because the generally-soluble sweetener material is chewed out of the insoluble base portion as a result of mastication.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,350 to Fisher, et al. describes a method for producing chewing gum so that an initial burst of sweetness is followed by a sustained sweetness release by homogenizing a portion of a bulk sweetener with the gum base while in a viscous condition followed by stepwise addition of the remaining bulk sweetener after cooling the original homogenous base/sweetener combination. Subsequently-added sweetener layers provide initial sweetness while the homogenous blend of bulk sweetener and base purportedly provide a degree of sustained sweetness.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,368 to Witzel, et al. describes a chewing gum which has long-lasting sweetness prepared from a gum base mixed with a sweetener which is then further mixed with additional aqueous sweetener.
In both of the above references the slow-down or controlled release is effected by special mixing steps of the sweetener with the gum base. No mention is made, however, of using an insoluble material other than the gum base, such as an insoluble fat material, to effect slowed-down or controlled release of the sweetener from gum composition into the oral cavity.
However, U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,000 to Fujita, et al. describes a nucleoside-5'-phosphate flavoring for food which is protected against degradation by phosphatase by coating with an edible fat. Among the means for coating is included a homogeneously admixing of the nucleoside-5'-phosphate with the coating agent in a melted state followed by spraying the homogeneous mixture off into cool atmosphere. Somewhat relatedly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,480 to Cermak discloses a process for preparing a condiment-containing fatty particulate by contacting a condiment in a zone with preformed fatty matrix particles with substantially uncontrolled agglomeration of either the matrix or the resulting composite particles. The contacting operation, which is usually a physical blending, substantially enrobes or sorbs the fatty matrix onto the condiment.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a controlled release of sweetener by use of a means other than specially adapted process steps.